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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 327.73047
EAN num: 9780195078510
ISBN number: 0195078519
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 368
Printing Date: September 25, 1997
Publishing house: Oxford University Press, USA
Sale Popularity Level: 341779
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
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For half of the twentieth century, the Cold War gripped the world. International relations everywhere--and domestic policy in scores of nations--pivoted around this central point, the American-Soviet rivalry. Even today, much of the world's diplomacy grapples with chaos created by the Cold War's sudden disappearance. Here indeed is a subject that defies easy understanding. Now comes a definitive account, a startlingly fresh, clear eyed, comprehensive history of our century's longest struggle.
In The Cold War, Ronald E. Powaski offers a new perspective on the great rivalry, even as he provides a coherent, concise narrative. He wastes no time in challenging the reader to think of the Cold War in new ways, arguing that the roots of the conflict are centuries old, going back to Czarist Russia and to the very infancy of the American nation. He shows that both Russia and America were expansionist nations with messianic complexes, and the people of both nations believed they possessed a unique mission in history. Except for a brief interval in 1917, Americans perceived the Russian government (whether Czarist or Bolshevik) as despotic; Russians saw the United States as conspiring to prevent it from reaching its place in the sun. U.S. military intervention in Russia's civil war, with the aim of overthrowing Lenin's upstart regime, entrenched Moscow's fears. Soviet American relations, difficult before World War II--when both nations were relatively weak militarily and isolated from world affairs--escalated dramatically after both nations emerged as the world's major military powers. Powaski paints a portrait of the spiraling tensions with stark clarity, as each new development added to the rivalry: the Marshall Plan, the communist coup in Czechoslovakia, the Berlin blockade, the formation of NATO, the very first Soviet nuclear test. In this atmosphere, Truman found it easy to believe that the Communist victory in China and the Korean War were products of Soviet expansionism. He and his successors extended their own web of mutual defense treaties, covert actions, and military interventions across the globe--from the Caribbean to the Middle East and, finally to Southeast Asia, where containment famously foundered in the bog of Vietnam.
Powaski skillfully highlights the domestic politics, diplomatic maneuvers, and even psychological factors as he untangles the knot that bound the two superpowers together in conflict. From the nuclear arms race, to the impact of U.S. recognition of China on detente, to Brezhnev's inflexible persistence in competing with America everywhere, he casts new light on familiar topics. Always judicious in his assessments, Powaski gives due credit to Reagan and especially Bush in facilitating the Soviet collapse, but also notes that internal economic failure, not outside pressure, proved decisive in the Communist failure. Perhaps most important, he offers a clear eyed assessment of the lasting distortions the struggle wrought upon American institutions, raising questions about whether anyone really won the Cold War. With clarity, fairness, and insight, he offers the definitive account of our century's longest international rivalry.
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Rated by buyers 
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On a positive note, Powaski correctly (I think) dates the start of the Cold War from the Russian Revolution, not 1945, and implies that the US/USSR clash was inevitable from a geopolitical standpoint. However, considering that the book was published in 1999, four years after the Venona trasncripts were declassified, the author lamely succumbs to the politically correct view that the "Red Scare" in the US of the 1950s clouded American decision-making. We now know that McCarthy, for all his bluntness, erred on the low side in talking about Soviet/communist penetration of the Roosevelt/Truman administrations. For example, he cites the removal of two State Department officers for daring to question American support for Chiang Kai Shek and suggesting a more "realistic" China policy. He fails to mention that US China policy was directed during the 1940s by a cabal of (now) proven KGB agents, at least one of whom later defected to Communist China, and that the Truman administration, to protect itself politically, sheltered them and then conducted the only witch-hunt of the 1950s, that directed against McCarthy and anyone who provided him with information. It's past time that historians stopped concealing evidence.
Rated by buyers 
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this book, while not involved with alot of individual detail, is a great summary of important events throughout the cold war. i personally use it all of the time for quick referencing. i recommend it to anyone interested in the cold war.
Rated by buyers -
I had to read this book as part of my history graduate studies. While Powaski has a notable orthodox lean to the Cold War spin, towards the end, he notes "post-revisionistly" that both Russia and U.S. have to take blame. Not an easy read and with little if any original research (no Russian primary sources), but quite informative as a narrative of Cold War history...would have liked more information on the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5, which sort of started all the ill feelings in the very first place.
Rated by buyers -
This book went all the way back to pre-revolutionary times and started from there. Very very detailed view of what REALLY happened. Why, Who, and Other critical points of the relations between the Soviet Union and the U.S. in the Global Arena.
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